"....The staff is sick and tired of the impunity extended by the office of the Secretary-General to senior managers for their failings especially in situations where it has led to death and disability....."
- UN Staff Union

Bidding will get underway next month for the contract to provide the United Nations its first unarmed surveillance drone.

By LUKE VARGAS

UNITED NATIONS (TRNS) – The United Nations is currently soliciting
bids for the procurement of the body’s first unarmed surveillance drone.

Bid number RFPS-1794 from the U.N.’s Procurement Division details a
request for “provision of one (1) unmanned aerial system (UAS) for three
(3) years plus two (2) optional years” in support of the ongoing U.N.
mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

The Security Council decided last month
that the use of of surveillance drones would enhance the effectiveness
of its peacekeeping operations in the DRC’s eastern territories, where
the M23 rebel group has continued to pose a security risk and limit the authority of the country’s army.

While the inclusion of drones in the U.N.’s peacekeeping strategy
seems a logical move given the surveillance limitations of ground
forces, the world body has typically played the role of reporting the
harmful effects of drones.

Just this week, a U.N. report found that the increased use of armed drones by the United States in 2012 resulted in 16 civilian deaths in Afghanistan, a jump from only one in 2011.

In addition to the UAS request, the U.N. is concurrently soliciting
bids on geospatial image interpretation services to “extract topographic
features and information,” presumably from the aforementioned drone.

About 8,000 people
have died from cholera in Haiti and thousands more have been made ill.
Photograph: Thony Belizaire/AFP/Getty Images

The UN has taken the rare step of invoking its legal immunity to rebuff claims for compensation from 5,000 victims of the Haiticholera
epidemic, the worst outbreak of the disease in modern times and widely
believed to have been caused by UN peacekeepers importing the infection
into the country.
Citing a convention laid down in 1946, the UN secretary general, Ban Ki-moon,
telephoned President Michel Martelly of Haiti to tell him that the UN
was not willing to compensate any of the claimants. The epidemic has
killed almost 8,000 people and stricken hundreds of thousands more –
about one out of every 16 Haitians.

Former prime minister Helen Clark will dive into the social news
website Reddit on Tuesday morning for an "ask me anything" chatroom.

It is the same forum used by US President Barack Obama during his
election campaign last year and made popular by the website's 43 million
users.

The IAmA ("I am a") Reddit is one of the most clicked-on by the site's users and prompts others to AMA ("ask me anything").

Miss Clark has been put up for the web chat by the United Nations in her role as director of the UN's Development Programme.

The UN shared the news about Miss Clark's planned Reddit chat on its
Twitter account and invited questions about Millennium Development
Goals, though users will, as the name suggests, be able to ask the
former prime minister whatever they like.

New Zealanders wanting to join the chat will have to be up early though,
with it set to start at 4.30am (10.30am eastern standard time in the
United States).

It seems that along with 17 years of flat global temperatures there
is some evidence that we are witnessing some cooling on global warming
hype and hysteria in Washington as well. Following President Obama’s
State of the Union pledge to double down on his frenetic “green” war to
prevent climate change, U.S. Representative Blaine Luetkemeyer (R-MO)
has introduced legislation to discontinue any more taxpayer green from
being used to advance the U.N.’s economy-ravaging agendas. The proposed
bill would prohibit future U.S. funding for the alarmist
Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), and also for the
Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), a scam devoted to
redistributing American wealth in penance for our unfair capitalist free
market prosperity.

Congressman Luetkemeyer strongly objects to the UNFCC’s use of IPCC’s
suggestions and faulty data to implement a job-killing agenda here in
America.

He argues: “The American people should not have to foot the
bill for an international organization that is fraught with waste,
engaged in dubious science, and is promoting an agenda that will destroy
jobs and drive up the cost of energy in the United States.
Unfortunately, the president appears to be ready to fund these groups,
revive harmful policies like cap and trade, and further empower out of
control federal regulators at a time when we should be doing everything
possible to cut wasteful spending, reduce regulatory red tape, and
promote economic growth.”

All available lines to New York will be taken up tonight by
Labour as they seek guidance from Helen Clark after Ian Wishart dropped a
bombshell on Labour in the latest issue of Investigate. This is an epic
Tory party style sex scandal, except all the players are Labour elite.
It’s got the lot, gay sex, drunken parties, drugs, troughing and
bribery.

The article is huge and can be summarised as follows:

Claims Tim Barnett encouraged a 14 year old to leave school to work in his office. Is this grooming?

Claims former Mayor Gary Moore also part of enticement with job offers. Labour pals stick together.

Truancy Officer was Labour supporter and aided and abetted truancy. More pals involved.

Government money used to fly 14 year old numerous times around country. Troughing.

Given free reign around parliament and Beehive as a 14-15 year old. WTF!

Had Speaker Jonathan Hunt intervening in favour of 14 year old with security at Parliament. What else was Hunt involved in?

Alleges Tim Barnett confides in 14 year old about Helen Clark,
Heather Simpson and Judith Tizard being involved in lesbian affairs. First time this has aired in a major publication to my knowledge.

Alleges Chris Carter was phoned and intervened on 14 year old’s behalf with CYFS to release 14 year old.

Barnett alleges that Goulter was trying to trace his birth mother and was emotional. Very strange reply to serious questions. How very intimate of Barnett to know all about the state of mind of a 14 year old.

Lianne Dalziel knowing Goulter but Investigate publishes a photo of them together. Oh dear, can Lianne ever tell the truth?

Dalziel apologises to Goulter in a Facebook chat for denying she knew him. Liar, Liar, pants on Fire.

Tim Barnett and Labour functionary and
ADHB board member Dr. Ian Scott conspire to get drunk Goulter off work
to continue partying. More grooming behaviour, two drunk older gay men assisting a drunk underage teenager to abscond from work.

This is a truly spell-binding article. The details are very clear but
I don’t doubt that there is a fair bit of embellishment. Basically
Jacinda Ardern is the only person coming out of this story looking
completely normal, sensible even. That must surely be a worry for the
Labour Party if Jacinda Ardern looks sensible.

Tim Barnett is pictured, by Goulter, as a typical poof, preying
on/grooming youngsters and trying to cheat on his partner. Basically a
mini-me Chris Carter with out the camel jockeys. It is clear that
Goulter is (or was) a teenage star-chaser and no doubt rated his
access a lot higher than the reality was.

However you have to ask what possible motive could a member of
parliament have for allowing a troubled teen who has basically been
exited from school hang around with him to the extent that he did.

Barnett has been caught lying and so has Chris Carter. Especially
the wedding angle. And that sad old poof Jonathon Hunt needs to be asked
some hard questions too.

This story shows pretty much the entire senior echelon of Labour with
the exception of Jacinda Ardern and Phil Goff (ironically described as “a bit of a nobody”) seem to be a bunch of fag-hags, pederasts and perverts who once they get a little bit of power will use it unwisely.

The one who got caught out in the biggest lie however was Lianne
Dalziel who facebooked to Goulter how she had lied about knowing him!
Actually I would go so far as to call it outrageous that a child is
allowed to attach himself to the inner core of the Labour government,
with access to parliament to seemingly come and go as he pleases and
have what can only be described as an inappropriate relationship with
non family adult males.

Barnett’s alleged comments about the bulldog and the Clark/Simpson/Tizard triangle of terror is priceless. Pure gold.

One thing that doesn’t hold true to me about the traditional
description of Clark’s Labour governemnt is that it doesn’t appear that
Heather Simpson knew anything about it otherwise the kid’s bum would be
whacked back to Mincer Mika faster than you could say “oh Helen”. I
simply can’t imagine she would be loose enough politically to let an
uppity, teenage bi-sexual drama-queen near the circle of influence. I know real bad pun.

The one thing in Goulters favour is he had the good sense to call
Tony Milne and Michael Wood names…plus he hates Jacinda, and writes off
Young Labour as “a bunch of smelly fat unattractive people”. Two words people, Sonny and Thomas.

A truly bizarre account of the inner working of Labour. Now we watch
and see what falls out. There are certainly some large inconsistencies
in the stories but also some information that could only have been
gleaned by actually being there on the inside.

Frustrated by the epic inefficiency, sprawling disorganization and
free-spending of their money by the United Nations, a group of Western
donor nations, including the U.S., has been meeting quietly to develop a
strategy to rein in the world organization’s more than $20 billion a
year in anti-poverty assistance – which even parts of the U.N. concede
hasn’t done much to relieve poverty.

The donor group’s aim is to produce some kind of workable reform
agenda for the bloated system that will actually achieve greater
efficiency, less duplication and fragmentation of efforts, less
corruption and a greater ability to see where their money actually goes.

So far, the would-be reformers are mostly trying to figure out how
cost-efficient U.N. programs are, and what management tools the widely
differing U.N. organizations can be pressed into adopting.
The U.N. organizations themselves — including such high-profile
entities as the United Nations Development Program, UNICEF, the World
Food Program, the World Health Organization and more than 30 others —are
not invited to the meetings.

According to a document summarizing one of the closed-door sessions
obtained by Fox News, the group of 17 reformer nations is aware that
they have a long march ahead to reshape the chaotic U.N. system, make it
more rational, or even more financially comprehensible.

Another cause of frustration is the spaghetti-like tangle of ways that donor nations contribute money to the UN system.

The document summarizes the most recent meeting of the reformers in
the Swedish capital of Stockholm last November, and also looks forward
to their next strategy session, known as the Senior Level Donor Meeting
on Multilateral Reform, in Berlin next April.

When queried by Fox News for information about the meeting, a
spokesman for Germany’s federal Ministry for Economic Development
Cooperation merely acknowledged that the session was taking place.

According to the Stockholm document, the donor nations, which include
most major Western European nations, as well as Canada, Australia and
the U.S.—but not Japan—are not trying to cut costs, but rather are about
“achieving more with available resources.”

In response to questions from Fox News, a spokesperson for Britain’s
Department for International Development (DFID), one of the major forces
behind the reform exercise, says that “U.N. agencies know that cost
effectiveness is an important priority for the U.K.—it is one of the
criteria DFID used to assess the value for money of U.N. agencies in the
U.K.’s multilateral aid review, which we are updating later this year.”

But in rare public discussions of the exercise, participants from
Britain, for example, have also pointed to recent small but significant
cuts to the administrative budgets of a few of the bigger agencies,
amounting to about 5 percent, as fruit of their nearly year-long
efforts.

And Britain has already been more draconian than that. DFID, widely
considered to be one of the most aggressively reformist of donor
organizations, announced in early 2011 that it would walk out of four
smaller U.N. agencies that it had found in its original multilateral aid
review had contributed little “value for money” for Britain’s
investment, and were ranked “poor” in terms of their impact.
When questioned by Fox News about the British statements on
administrative budget cuts, a spokesman for the largest U.N. development
agency, UNDP, declared that the organization had cut its proposed
2012-2013 “institutional” budget by about $49 million, “equivalent to a 5
percent reduction” from the previous two-year total.

But the spokesman also said the reductions “formed part of a process
initiated by UNDP in exercising budgetary discipline, for example, by
eliminating non-essential services and identifying cuts to lower
priority functions.”

At Stockholm, the reformist group agreed that “donors and
multilateral organizations alike need to look at the causes of
proliferation and fragmentation and possible options for their
reduction.”
One possible translation: fewer and better-organized U.N. agencies —
though the agencies themselves may have different views than the
countries who identify that problem.

The U.N. system is a major cause of frustration and confusion for
those who pay the bills—as well as those who are supposed to benefit
from them. The U.N. system includes 37 agencies and organizations that
spend money on “development-related operational activities,” as a U.N.
summary document puts it. The biggest is the United Nations Development
Program, the U.N.’s anti-poverty flagship, which according to a U.N.
study accounted for 33 percent of all of the world organization’s
resources for “development-related activities.”

Another cause of frustration is the spaghetti-like tangle of ways
that donor nations contribute money to the U.N. system, through annual
dues-like assessments, voluntary contributions for specific projects or
themes, collective contributions through organizations like the European
Commission, or through an increasing stream of private contributions
that the governments of wealthy nations do not control.

Another is the U.N.’s awesome inefficiency, both in terms of bang for
the buck and in terms of actually alleviating the desperate poverty
that opens Western wallets in the first place.

A variety of expert studies, including one published in May 2012, have
rated U.N. agencies at the low end of effectiveness among
organizations, governments and institutions around the globe, and ranked
them equally as low for their willingness to discuss their finances and
operations.

The maze-like complexity of the U.N. system is one reason why the
donor nations who will meet in Berlin have put the issue of
“proliferation and fragmentation” high on their list for reform. How
they hope to do that is still unclear. According to the document
obtained by Fox News, Germany’s federal Ministry for Overseas
Cooperation and Development, or BMZ, will lead discussion on the issue
by means of a study of “the incentive structures” beyond the increasing
bureaucratic tangle.

The Stockholm document also underscores the remarkable amount donor
nations do not know about the welter of U.N. organizations, which do not
keep track of costs or program spending in similar ways, do not manage
their efforts or staff effectively in terms of results, do not conduct
audits in similar fashion, and do not promote or enforce the same rules
on combating corruption.

The Stockholm conclave agreed that “there was a continued need to
discuss reform and to form coherent messages to drive change,” as well
as continued “coordination among donors” and even “clarity on what
success looks like.”

The donors have also agreed to institutionalize themselves through an
organization they created a decade ago, known as the Multilateral
Organization Performance Assessment Network, or MOPAN. This year it will
establish its own permanent Secretariat.

The big question — which is unlikely to be answered at Berlin in
April—is whether a new organization of U.N. donors with another strange
acronym will truly help to cut back on the bewildering U.N. bloat and
inefficiency — or add further to it.

George Russell is executive editor of Fox News and can be found on Twitter@GeorgeRussell

Monday, February 18, 2013

Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon

2011 VOLUNTARY PUBLIC DISCLOSURE

The following is a list of Senior Officials of the United Nations at
the level of Assistant Secretary-General and above who participated in
the 2011 Voluntary Public Disclosure initiative (VPD).
For those participants who chose to disclose their interests, a
summary is provided. The summary contains a declaration of assets and
interests for the 2010 calendar year which the Senior Official
confidentially disclosed under the 2011 United Nations Financial
Disclosure Programme (FDP).
The list has been presented in alphabetical order by family name.

Sarajevo -- The United Nations Development Programme launched a
global challenge to find a renewable energy solution capable of
providing off-grid power, with a $20,000 cash prize for the winner.

More than 3,000 families who returned to Bosnia and Herzegovina over
10 years ago after the war are still waiting for access to electricity.
For most of returnees, houses have been reconstructed and basic living
conditions restored, but they cannot refrigerate their food or
illuminate their home.

The challenge,
in partnership with Nesta, a UK-based charity that works to bring
“great ideas to life,” calls for a sustainable, cost-effective solution
for a standalone, off-grid renewable energy supply that can produce an
average of 1,25 kWh and 120 litres of hot-water a day, to cover the
needs of an average family in rural areas of Bosnia and Herzegovina that
will not cost more than €5,000.

Thursday, February 14, 2013

Press ReleaseThe Palestinian Industrial Estate and Free Zone Authority and the United Nations DevelopmentProgramme sign an Exchange of Letters funded by the Government of JapanRamallah – 07 February 2013 - The
Palestinian Industrial Estate and Free Zone Authority (PIEFZA) and the
United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), in the presence of the
Representative Office of Japan to the Palestinian Authority, signed an
exchange of letters worth USD 1,487,532 to establish an administration
building for the Jericho Agro-Industrial Park.

The project is part of the Government of
Japan’s “corridor for peace and prosperity” initiative in the Jordan
Valley which aims to establish a viable state for Palestinians
accompanied with sustainable economic development through the
strengthening of their partnership with neighbouring countries. The
establishment of a sustainable administration facility for the JAIP will
enhance access to effective social, economic and public services and
utilities.

The United Nations Development Programme /
Programme of Assistance to the Palestinian People will work in close
cooperation and partnership with its Palestinian counterparts, in
particular the Municipality of Jericho and PIEFZA on all aspects of the
project, noting that the administration building will become the home
for PIEFZA operations that will serve the Industrial Park stakeholders.

On behalf of PIEFZA, the Minister of
National Economy, H.E. Dr. Jawad Naji highlighted that “the Ministry is
currently working on developing a comprehensive strategy for the
Palestinian industrial zones which includes incentives, marketing
elements and other commercial activities that shall form an enabling
environment for investment”. The Minister also expressed his
appreciation to the government and people of Japan for the generous fund
and the United Nations Development Programme for their continued
support to the Palestinian people.

The PIEFZA administration building will
have an approximate total space area of 1,000 square metres (one dunum),
in addition to the excavation and levelling works for four dunums to be
used for the administration building and its services. Approximately
7,600 workdays will be generated as a result of the project, thus
providing short term employment opportunities for the residents of
Jericho and the Jordan Valley.

“JAIP has greatly progressed recently. I
sincerely hope JAIP will contribute to creating the foundation for a
Palestinian State and bring peace and prosperity to Jericho and the
Jordan valley” stated the Ambassador for Palestinian Affairs and the
Representative of Japan to the Palestinian Authority, H.E. Mr. Junya
Matsuura. “The Government of Japan has extended its official development
assistance for more than USD 50 million for Jericho and JAIP only, and
USD 1.3 billion in total for the State of Palestine. We will continue to
support the establishment of a viable independent Palestinian state,”
he added.

“This industrial park supports the
opportunities for the private sector in Jericho and the Jordan Valley”
said Frode Mauring, UNDP Special Representative of the Administrator.
“Without a vibrant private sector there is no future for a sustainable
Palestinian economy” he added.

The signing ceremony was held on Thursday
February 7th, 2013 in the presence of H.E. Dr. Jawad Naji, Minister of
National Economy, H.E. Junya Matsuura, Ambassador for Palestinian
Affairs and Representative of Japan to the Palestinian Authority, Frode
Mauring, UNDP Special Representative of the Administrator and Eng.
Abdelrahman Shtayeh, the Acting Director-General of PIEFZA.

It is worth mentioning that this is the
fourth phase of the JAIP project, funded by the Government of Japan. The
prior three phases which included the rehabilitation works for 1.8 km
connecting road, excavation and levelling works for 115 dunums,
construction of a 2.15 km water transport line and a 1.5 km 4” pipeline,
in addition to the construction of a 500 cubic metres water tank, were
already completed and handed over.

The role of ICTs as development enablers is more widely understood
today as access to new technologies, particularly mobile phones, has
grown exponentially. Mobile phone subscriptions exceeded six billion by
the end of 2012, three-quarters of which were in the developing world.
However, women are at a disadvantage: they are 21% less likely to own a
mobile phone than men, according to the latest Broadband Commission Report (PDF, 2.4Mb).

Development presents an opportunity to effectively address this and
other gender gaps. I am speaking here about sustainable human
development, about the ability to make choices and lead a healthy, long
and educated life with all that we value.

The 21-page Report of the Special Rapporteur on the Right to Food,
Olivier De Schutter, was released in December. The report’s conclusions
were based on De Schutter’s 11-day fact-finding mission across Canada
last May, where he met with numerous government departments including
Aboriginal Affairs and Northern Development Canada and Agriculture and
Agri-Foods Canada, as well as Minister of Health Leona Aglukkaq.

“The Special Rapporteur was disconcerted by the deep and severe food
insecurity faced by Aboriginal peoples living both on- and off-reserve
in remote and urban areas,” read the report.

The Overseas
Development Agency (ODI) will host UN Development Programme (UNDP)
Administrator Helen Clark in an interactive event chaired by ODI
Director Alison Stevens. Clark, who also serves as the Chair of the UN
Development Group (UNDG), will speak about the post-2015 development
agenda and efforts to build ownership and reach consensus on a shared
development agenda.

My thanks go to Dr. David Rodin for the invitation to speak here on the important topic of conflict and development.

This university is home to a great deal of academic research on the
relationship between conflict and development –including that of Paul
Collier on the economic causes of civil wars, and Frances Stewart on the
link between horizontal inequalities and conflict.

Alas, one does not need to look for long for examples of conflict
impacting on development. Take the case of Mali: almost a year ago,
conflict in the north of the country and a military coup derailed two
decades spent building democracy and pursuing development there.
Elections were scheduled to be held in Mali a month after that coup took
place – and the President, adhering to the Constitution, had clearly
stated that he would not be a candidate.

Mali’s experience is not atypical or unique – it is an example of the
types of conflicts the world is increasingly witnessing. The conflict
there is not a war between states, but, rather, within a state. It has
regional dimensions – in this case the upheaval in Libya had spillover
effects for the north of Mali, and Mali’s regional neigbours in ECOWAS
have been very engaged in the debate about what to do. The battle lines
of the conflict were not clearly drawn, either territorially or in terms
of issues, suggesting more complex dynamics at play.

The Arab uprisings have exposed skewed development policies, social
justice deficits and over two decades of poorly managed economic
liberalization.

That, according to a joint report by the International Labour
Organization (ILO) and the UN Development Programme (UNDP) released
Tuesday.

The report titled "Rethinking Economic Growth: Towards Inclusive and
Productive Arab Societies", says the region's greatest deficits have
been in the areas of social protection and social dialogue.
It says policies pursued during the 1990s and 2000s enabled countries
in the region to tackle debt and inflation, spur economic growth and
create jobs. But, growth lagged behind the rest of the world, new jobs
were concentrated in low productivity sectors, and government paid
little attention to the social consequences of their economic policies.

For more than three years, a sophisticated computerized management
system intended to be a cornerstone of United Nations reform has been
one of Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s most embarrassing train wrecks,
described as a “failure of management” on Ban’s part. Now, the world
organization’s attempts to salvage the system -- known in-house as
Umoja, a Swahili term for unity – have turned into an even bigger
scandal.

Even after an admission that it was three years behind its initial scheduled completion as of a year ago, Umoja has been a victim of U.N. mismanagement,
misjudgment and almost surreal levels of ineffective implementation,
according to internal U.N. documents. Meantime, U.N. member states,
including the U.S. – the organization’s biggest financial contributor--
fling additional tens of millions of dollars at the dysfunctional ERP
project to turn it around.

Helen Clark talked to the Harvard School of Public Health about global
health and what lessons we can learn from the Millenium Development
Goals, set to expire in 2015.

BOSTON, Massachusetts—Helen Clark, administrator of the United
Nations Development Program, spoke at the Forum at the Harvard School of
Public Health on Thursday, January 15.

Clark spoke
about addressing social determinants of health, and the need to look at
health and environment in the promotion of sustainable development. She
also discussed what we can learn from the Millennium Development Goals,
which are set to expire in 2015. Here are some highlights from her talk.

TEHRAN (FNA)- The United Nations Development Program (UNDP) and
Iran's Crisis Management Organization inked a Memorandum of
Understanding (MoU) to expand cooperation between two sides.

"By signing the MoU, the Islamic Republic of Iran is cooperating
with the UNDP office in Tehran in the field of reducing the risk of
(unprecedented) events," Head of Iran's Crisis Management Organization
Hassan Qadami said on Sunday.

"This office cooperates on different issues such as reducing
poverty, fighting drug addiction, environment and issues related to
crisis management of incidents," the official said.

He said that the Iranian officials should be able to implement the
plans for reinforcing the buildings and preventing the incidents as well
as supplying other countries with emergency assistance in case they are
affected by unprecedented incidents.

The Head of UNDP office in Tehran Balasubramaniam Murali, for his
part, said that the signed five-year state program with Iran includes
four main sections.

"Reducing the risk and damage caused by natural disasters were among main sections of the program," he added.

The UNDP is the United Nations' global development network. It
advocates for change and connects countries to knowledge, experience and
resources to help people build a better life. UNDP operates in 177
countries, working with nations on their own solutions to global and
national development challenges. As they develop local capacity, they
draw on the people of UNDP and its wide range of partners.

UNDP is an executive board within the United Nations General
Assembly. The UNDP Administrator is the third highest-ranking official
of the United Nations after the United Nations Secretary-General and
Deputy Secretary-General.

The U.S. CFS appointed a panel of what they consider to be high level experts to conduct the study. RFA points out that Timothy
Searchinger, an outspoken critic of biofuels and author of a highly
controversial 2008 report on indirect land use change, is among the
appointed panelists.

Geoff
Cooper, RFA’s Vice President for Research and Analysis, said the group’s
draft report “needs substantial revision before it can be submitted for
official peer review. Not only does the report fail to discuss
potentially positive impacts of biofuels expansion on food security, but
it also inappropriately expands the intended scope of the study,
blatantly disregards input from the May 2012 consultation, fails to
include a comprehensive literature review, and adopts highly
questionable assumptions regarding animal feed co-products, crop yields
and other factors.”

The RFA comments reflect the association’s belief that “biofuels are
providing tangible benefits and positive outcomes for both the world’s
farmers and consumers. RFA believe biofuels can bring the same benefits
to developing nations without jeopardizing food security. RFA also said biofuels have the potential to serve as an important tool in reducing food insecurity.”RFA does agree with
the U.N. Food & Agriculture Organization (FAO) that: “…investment
in bioenergy could spark much-needed investment in agricultural and
transport infrastructure in rural areas and, by creating jobs and
boosting household incomes, could alleviate poverty and food
[in]security.”
The RFA comments can be read in full here.Source: RFA

“[Results] do suggest the possibility of a much larger impact of
solar variations on the stratosphere than previously thought, and some
studies have suggested that this may lead to significant regional
impacts on climate,” reads a draft copy of a major, upcoming report from
the U.N.’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

The man who leaked the report, StopGreenSuicide blogger Alec Rawls, told FoxNews.com that the U.N.’s statements on solar activity were his main motivation for leaking the document.

Friday, February 1, 2013

''For the UN development system to be successful globally, it needs to
be firmly rooted in its core focus area, which has primarily to be
development related only, and that the 'D' in UNDP should stand for
decimating poverty,''

UNDP is the biggest UN development agency and the " UN anti-poverty
organization -- a world partnership against poverty and hunger ". When
implementing its core function to help the developing countries reduce
and eradicate poverty, UNDP should strictly abide by the principle of
country ownership and leadership as well as the fundamental
characteristics of the operational activities, which is neutrality,
multilateralism, and the grant nature.

The Chinese delegation urges
UNDP, on the basis of carefully studying and analyzing the evaluation
reports on poverty reduction, to pay due attention to improving its
work, implementing recommendations contained in the reports and
providing feedback in this regard. UNDP should also base its work on the
realities and needs of world poverty and continuously improve the
pertinence and effectiveness of its program planning and implementation
to achieve its ultimate contribution to poverty reduction.

An
old Yiddish proverb says, "You cannot control the wind, but you can
adjust the sails." UNDP’s evaluations allow us to do just that — to
re-adjust our thinking and our policies so that we can maximize our
impact.And despite the complex nature of the
challenges UNDP faces, Israel strongly believes that, with the help of
these reliable and independent evaluations, UNDP will be well-equipped
to reach the full range of its development goals.

UNDP's Free Speech Concept

This is what pro-poor means at United Nations

United Nations Development Millionaires !

637 UNDP Staffers are Millionaires, and another 1041 UNDP staffers have enough salary (income) to justify million dollar homes in New York (or tri-state area NY/NJ/CT).

UN/UNDP's budgets are untransparent !

U.N. budget is “utterly opaque, untransparent and completely in the shadow” and would benefit from being consolidated and audited from the outside. MMB from NyTimes

JOSE RAMOS HORTA - PRESIDENT OF EAST TIMOR

‘‘You know how many layers of bureaucracy there are when the European Union wants to help East Timor? Well, they don’t provide the funds to us, the funds allocated are managed by world bank. And the world bank has its own layers of bureaucracy. And they charge for that. The project is then managed by UNDP. But UNDP is only good at doing studies, they don’t execute projects.’‘

Boutros Boutros-Ghali on UN:

"perhaps half of the UN work force does nothing useful"

Can Helen Clark be trusted on Climate Change ?

President Obama's answer to Helen Clark's appeal for US to do more on climate change was : "I think the American people right now have been so focused, and will continue to be focused, on our economy and jobs and growth that ... if the message is somehow, we're going to ignore jobs and growth simply to address climate change, I don't think anybody's gonna go for that," he said. "I won't go for that."

In 2011 Rami Makhlouf - a trusted development partner of UNDP in Syria

In 2008 U.S. Treasury designation: Rami Makhluf Designated for Benefiting from Syrian Corruption (Click on photo to see US Treasury page)

"Screwed" How Foreign Countries Are Ripping America Off

A full chapter (7) dedicated to UNDP and UN Secretariat. But it today at Amazon.com (click above picture)

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Asma al-Assad is UNDP's champion of reform in Syria

UNDP's special relations with dictators and terror is well documented. Yet, they continue to operate covered by UN Immunity. Click on immage for story.

Aicha Gaddafi You are Fired !

UNDP continues to be in bed with other dictators. Will clean it one at a time.

Where is NETAID money David Morrison?

UNDP Transparency Censored

UNDP Chief Finance Officer

The UNDP is a secretive organization and so far has kept in the dark every information related to its Chief Finance Officer and Deputy Assistant Administrator, Mr. Darshak Shah. Click on the picture for more on Finance Office of UNDP.

UNDP Belarus - best breast corner

Should tax-payers dollars be used to photograph beautiful breasts - even when making a valid point?

Uncle Helen turning UNDP into a cove of corrupt NZ labour politicians

CLICK ON PICTURE TO SEE Chris Carter's latest Credit Card scandal - can he work at UNDP after that? It seems YES he is full tested!!

Helen Clark says: "No more cars"

Thinking about buying a new car this year? Why, you evil Westerner! You don’t need that. You are demanding your new car off the sweat, toil, and exploitation of the world’s poorest people in developing countries.

Happy Valentines Day !

Andrew Mitchell - says Helen Clark is up to no good!

1. UNDP’s partnership with the World Bank needs to be more effective, particularly in fragile and crisis-affected countries. 2. UNDP’s near universal mandate means its technical resources are spread very thinly. The Board does not provide strategic direction. HR management is weak. It has a weak results chain. 3. There is limited evidence of active senior management consideration of cost control. Country evidence points to mixed progress on demonstrating cost-efficiency. 4. The Executive Board is politicised and there is a lack of consensus on the key areas for reform. It is not clear that current plans for change will deliver the required depth and breadth of reform. 5. Evidence gathered at country level was highly critical of UNDP’s ability to deliver results. Its delivery can be undermined by staffing issues and bureaucratic processes. 6. Its performance in fragile states is mixed. It has reasonable training and a range of guidance and analytical tools but struggles to fill posts. 7. There is no evidence that the Climate Strategy was directly guiding resource allocation decisions

Mark Malloch Brown outraged over Aicha Gaddafi

“I hope she's not a UNDP Ambassador,” ...“I don't think it's UNDP. I was surprised when I saw that... she was an Ambassador to any part of the UN system.”

Travel Palestine - Rediscover Your Senses

Get ready to a sensual feast of ...sounds...scents of The Land of حماس‎ Ḥamās Documentary sponsored by UNDP Funds (click on picture for video)

Helen Clark on UNDP's own corruption (Can she be trusted?)

“When funds intended for life-saving treatment and prevention are stolen, that theft is tantamount to murder.” CLICK ON PICTURE FOR MORE

Scandal in Rwanda with Human Development Report

Aurelien Agbenonci, UNDP's RR in Kigali accuses Khalid Malik of making up data without UNDP Rwanda's knowledge. Rwanda Government is unhappy !!!

H.E. Dirk Niebel - German Development Minister

"I take the accusations made in the media concerning corruption and breach of fiduciary duty at the Global Fund very seriously and I am sure that the Fund will clarify the matter without delay. Germany is one of the biggest donors to the Global Fund. I have therefore seen to it that a special review will be held. I have frozen all further disbursements to the Fund until matters have been fully clarified, and I will ask a representative of the Fund to come to the BMZ to discuss the matter."

US Amb. Joseph Torsella blows the whistle on UN budgets

U.N. Secretariat’s proposed $5.2 “regular” budget for 2012-2013, was “simply loosening our belt a little less than we originally planned.”

The U.N. Exposed

How the United Nations Sabotages America's Security and Fails the World (Click in picture to purchase the book)

Share now information about illegal dealings at United Nations

If you are in possession of UNDP or any other United Nations Agency' contracts, correspondence, financial records or databases, which you believe detail wrongdoing such as fraud, mismanagement and abuse of authority, and you have failed to have UN's internal control, oversight and justice systems respond and/or react to your claims, you can send them to UNDP-WATCH and we will make them public keeping your identity anonymous and confidential.

Send an email to: undpwatchmeister@gmail.com

Helen Clark is watching you!

Gaddafi aint got nothing on UNDP - Click on the picture for more!

Malakia: A Turk advises Greece on Economy

Kemal Dervis (Turkish) and George Papandreou (Greek) share many late-night phone calls together (Click on picture to read story)

Where does Ban stand on Libya?

C'est vraiment ce que tu veux pour ta carriere?

Because UNDT is the first level of the UN’s two-tiered justice system, there is a possibility that this decision may be appealed. Hopefully, the Secretary-General will not be “absurd” enough to do so. Click above to go to GAP page.

Andrew Mitchell Demands Transparency from United Nations

And I promise you as well that in future, when it comes to international development, we will want to see hard evidence of the impact your money makes. Not just dense and impenetrable budget lines but clear evidence of real effect

YOUR TAX DOLLARS AT UNITED NATIONS

Ban Ki Moon supports Ethics Decision on UNDP North Korea

Question: He recommends strongly that UNDP pays 14 months back pay to the whistleblower. Does the Secretary-General stand behind that recommendation? Should UNDP in fact pay that money, or are they free to rebuff that recommendation? Spokesperson: We will see what is going to happen. The Secretary-General of course is behind Mr. Benson on his report. There is no doubt about it. What UNDP will do, we will be seeing this; how they will implement that report.

Resign Now Kemal Dervis!!

In Memoriam to Algiers Victims

About UNDP Watch

UNDP Watch is a grouping of United Nations Staff committed to openness. We believe that everyone has the right to access information held by United Nations.
Despite a stated commitment to openness, UNDP remain a highly secretive agency.
Although a wealth of information is available on some UNDP websites, its Executive Board operate behind closed doors, much important programme and administrative information is never made available and, as a rule, information that is disclosed is provided only after relevant decisions have effectively been taken.
While UNDP has adopted “internal policies” on information disclosure, they in fact operate on precisely the opposite presumption. For the most part, they list which documents will be disclosed and when, and there is a presumption against the disclosure of all the other information they hold. They do not establish right of access, the lists of documents subject to disclosure is limited, they do not set out clear and narrow grounds for refusing access and they do not provide for independent oversight mechanisms to ensure proper implementation of the policy.
The UNDP WATCH is calling for the complete overhaul of these policies.

Speak out on Herfkens Corruption

U-Seek (UN Staff Union Initiative)

"...We believe that without accountability, there is impunity. We ask that you (Secretary General) not be complicit in cover-up of what happened prior to 11 Dec attack. The staff is sick and tired of the impunity extended by the office of the Secretary-General to senior managers for their failings especially in situations where it has led to death and disability."